


Long Live

by DarkestFreddie (orphan_account)



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Character Death, Lad and dad, This got way more deep than I meant it too lmao
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-03
Updated: 2016-06-03
Packaged: 2018-07-11 23:17:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,367
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7074841
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/DarkestFreddie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Promise me this:</p><p>That you'll stand by me forever<br/>But if God forbid fate should step in<br/>And force us into a goodbye<br/>If you have children someday<br/>When they point to the pictures<br/>Please tell them my name<br/>Tell them how the crowds went wild<br/>Tell them how I hope they shine</p>
            </blockquote>





	Long Live

**Author's Note:**

> This turned out way more deep than I originally planned but I just wrote this on a wim, so hopefully it's good! 
> 
> Song-fic. (Eh, kind of.) Long Live by Taylor Swift.

"Dad!" Freddie's voice booms as Louis looks up from his phone. 

"Hey son." He says quietly as Freddie embraces him. "I missed you." 

"I missed you too! Mom said that the next time you go to England, maybe we can Skype more often since I'm old enough to use it now." His son rambles on as Briana appears behind the ten-year old. 

"Only if your father says yes, Fred." The American accented girl reminds as she gives a small smile to Louis. 

"Dad! Say yes! Mom said that way I can talk to you longer since I won't be on her phone!" The boy is going a hundred miles an hour and Louis has never understood how his son has so much energy. It makes his head spin. 

"Of course we can, Freddie." Louis chuckles. "Now slow down a bit, yeah? How did baseball practice go? You do good?" 

"Uh-uh. Same old same old. I'm going to Gabriel's birthday party in a few weeks. It's a pirate party, that's cool! Right dad?" His son looks up at him, expectedly waiting for a response.

"Very cool, lad." Louis replies and nods to Briana. "Five o'clock on Sunday?" 

"Five o'clock." She nods, confirming the time they'll be switching off their son once again. "Bye sweetheart." She kisses her son's head. "See you in a few days, okay?" 

"Okay mommy! Bye!" Freddie yells and takes off towards the front seat of Louis' car. "Dad! Can we have McDonald's?" 

"No McDonald's. None." Briana says sternly to Louis as she turns and heads off to her own car, where Matt, her new husband of only a few weeks, is waiting. 

Louis gets in his own car and when they pull off he looks at his son next to him. "You can NOT tell your mother this, okay? You can have ONE burger and milkshake from McDonald's." 

"Yay!" His son yells and continues to cheer and talk all the way through the drive-thru of the fast food restaurant and even all the way to Louis' house. 

Even when they're home and eating, Freddie is still talking about everything he's been doing since Louis left for the UK almost a month ago to help with his sister. Lottie had taken her boyfriend's death hard, and with being pregnant, it was especially hard on her. Louis missed his son terribly, of course, for the last month or so but with his family spread across the world, he sometimes has to sacrifice time with friends or family to be with others. 

It wasn't convenient, but it was the best Louis could do. 

****************************** 

Finally. The kid was asleep. Louis swears the kid isn't real because he just never... stops. 

Louis takes the opportunity of his son sleeping to have a shower and call Lola and his daughter, Lily. The thought of his girlfriend and six month old daughter makes him smile. He misses them already, but is happy they're joining him in a few days so they can see Freddie.

He's just got off the phone when he hears his bedroom door open. 

Freddie walks through it and Louis knows he's upset just by looking at him. 

"Buddy?" The thirty-four year old asks his son. "What's wrong, Fred? It's almost midnight. You should be asleep." 

"I was." Freddie responds. "But I can't sleep. It's too lonely." 

"Come here." Louis says. 

His son climbs on the big bed and gets under the covers, looking at his father with sleepy yet wild eyes. 

"What are we doing until Lola and Lily come?" He asks. 

Louis sighs and starts talking. "Well, I thought I'd take you to kick the football around-" 

"Soccer ball?" His son interrupts.

"Yes, lad. The soccer ball." He shakes his head at the American term. "And then maybe go out to eat and buy you those new shoes you wanted, yeah?" 

"The black ones?" His son asks excitedly. 

"Uh-uh. The black ones." He's indulged into a bear hug before he even finishes his sentence. 

"Thanks, daddy." The blond boy says softly, his head tucked into his dad's neck. 

"Welcome, buddy." Louis responds. "Now, why aren't you alseep? You went to bed over an hour ago." 

"I don't know." Freddie lays down again. "Just thinking." 

"About?" Louis lays down as well, stroking his sons hair. "We are getting your hair cut as well on Saturday, by the way." 

"Ew. I don't want too." His son's answer gets a chuckle from him. 

"Will you- will you tell me stories of when you used to sing?" The boy looks at him curiously. 

"What do ya wanna know?" Louis asks. 

"Can you talk about when you went to Brazil? And when you saw that...statue?" 

"Christ of Redeemer." Louis corrects. 

"Yeah, that." Freddie whispers. 

"Alright." Louis starts. "There were so many people when we went to Brazil..." 

*****************************

Freddie falls asleep fast and Louis is now more wide awake than before his son woke up. He's sits up and grabs his phone, careful not to wake the boy sleeping. 

He goes out to his balcony that's attached to his room and sits down in the chair, unlocking his phone and going to his photos. 

He clicks on the last album he has in the app and taps on the first picture. 

It's of him and Lou, from the last tour in 2018. With doing one-hundred and forty shows in a mere ten months, the work load had which put a strain on him seeing Freddie not as much as he would've liked but he made it with a few compromises with Bria, and he was even allowed to take Freddie on the road for a few weeks. Once in March and again in September.

Louis smiles at the memory, and goes on through the pictures. He stops at one a while later. When he looks at it, he smiles a little smile.

It's their first group photo with Zayn after they had started talking again. Louis had sucked up his pride almost two years after the Bradford boy had left the group and the five of them all got together for dinner at Harry's place in London. 

The smile that Louis has in the picture is a little hesitant, but that's not because he wasn't happy to be there, no, he was ecstatic that Zayn had agreed to have dinner with them. It's just, he was scared that Zayn hated him. Louis had ignored Zayn for months (Besides the Twitter fight, which wasn't technically a fight according to Louis.) and they didn't even talk face-to-face for over a year. 

Louis was at Liam's place and had decided that he didn't need to knock before going in and boy, did he get an eyeful when he caught Zayn and Liam in a quite.. compromising position on the brown haired boy's couch. 

Louis just shakes his head and laughs at the memory: 

** 

"Hey, Li? I think Bria and I forgot Fred's oinsie here the other day, and she wants it before they fly back to the states but I couldn't find it at my- oh." 

Louis had stopped dead in his tracks, staring at the two boys on the couch. They were asleep, but it was obvious that under the blanket, they were both definitely naked. 

Louis had never actually told Liam that he saw them. No, Liam would freak out and probably yell at him for "invading privacy". 

So he just quietly looked around the apartment for the oinsie and when he finally found it in the boy's guest room, he had planned to sneak back out but of course, life just wasn't on his side that day. 

Zayn had apparently heard something and woke up and found Louis trying to sneak out and needless to say, Louis now knows what Zayn's dick looks like. 

The conversation was short and awkward, but in the end, Louis got Zayn's number and a few text conversations and phone calls followed before the dinner at Harry's months later. 

**

Louis smiles again and moves on to the next photo. It was only a couple years ago, when Louis was at the hospital once again for the birth of a child. 

Anna Mary Styles was her name. And her uncles loved and still do love, her dearly. All four of them. 

The picture he's staring at now features an eight year old Freddie holding the day old baby with Louis, Niall, Liam and Zayn looking on. 

Louis smiles and scrolls again. The next is from a few minutes later, it's a selfie of Harry and Taylor. Louis remembers tearing the phone away after the photo. "You are NOT going to take a bunch of selfies on my phone, Styles." 

He keeps going through the photo album until he stops at one a couple of photos later. 

His wedding. 

Not to Lola, no. But to Danielle in 2020. It lasted a mere eleven months, all thanks to Louis and how he had made a big mistake. 

Him and Briana had been having an affair, and even though Louis knew it was wrong, as they were both in relationships, but they had justified it because Briana's boyfriend was a very mean and defiant man who lived on the opposite coast of the US. On top of that, Louis had been drinking a lot and so, they had started a six month affair from the month before he got married all the way to that June. 

Danielle had kicked him out right away when she found out that Decemeber, three days after Christmas. His mother stopped talking to him for three months after that, even Liam had hung up on him when he found out about the affair, and had threatened to tell Louis' father about it. Which was NOT happening so Louis had to face the shame of telling his own father that he had failed at being faithful to the woman he was supposed to love. Mark was a little more sympathetic, but still made it clear he was deeply disappointed in him, which hurt almost as much as getting the divorce did. 

Now though, six years later, with a daughter and loving girlfriend, Louis considers it a life lesson. He went to rehab for his drinking, got help and even mended his friendship with Briana. He's also been sober for just as long. 

The next picture he sees is of Niall at his last appearance on the X Factor, where Louis was a judge. He looks at the date of the picture.

November 17th, 2019. The last season of X Factor, and it was taken after one of the first live performances of Niall's single, Fly To You. 

Ahh, Niall. Louis chuckles. The free spirit, literally. 

Louis considers his friend his Angel, as well as Freddie's and Lily's guardian angel. He still remembers the headline of The Sun the day after it happened. 

NIALL HORAN DIES OF BULLET WOUND IN LA NIGHTCLUB 

Niall was murderd at a club in Los Angeles, in July 2024. Almost two years ago. 

It broke everyone. No one could understand why God had taken such a young and bright soul away from them. 

Away from his parents and step-father, away from his brother and nephew. Away from his friends, former band mates, from (the then two month old) Anna and eight year old Freddie, who he considered to be his godson. No one could understand, especially Louis, why Niall had to be caught in the crossfire that night. He was a faceless victim to the shooter, but family to so many who loved him. 

Louis misses him still to this day and as he looks up into the June night sky, he finds himself searching, almost hoping, to find an answer. 

Louis was heartbroken, of course, when it happened. He always tried to honor the boy whenever he found the chance. He even named his daughter after him. 

Lillian James Tomlinson. 

He smiles at the thought of his daughter, although it turns a little sad once he remembers Niall never got to meet her. 

He moves on from the thought and finishes the photo album before smoking his last cigarette in the pack he has and heading back to bed. 

As he lays back down next to his son, he thanks God for his children and girlfriend, as well as saying goodnight to his Irish brother. 

*****************************

"Dad...dad...dad, wake up! Dad!" 

Louis groans and pushes his head into his pillow further. It's too early, he decides. 

"Dadddd..." Freddie wines, clearly not amused by his father's unwillingly-ness to get up on the Friday morning. 

"Ugh." The Doncaster boy groans. "Do I have too?" 

"Yes!" The boy yells. Too loudly, in Louis' opinion. "You promised to get me new shoes before Lola and the baby get here!" 

"Ugh, I know. I know, Fred. But sleeping doesn't sound too bad, now does it, lad?" He blinks one eye open at his son. 

"Dad!" Freddie angrily stomps his foot. 

"Alright, alright. I'm up." Louis says and Freddie cheers. 

"Alright, love. Do you want breakfast? Or should we make a secret run through McDonald's again?" Louis waits for his son to consider his options. 

"Daddy, can you make me pancakes? Like Nanny does?" Freddie asks and Louis knows he can't make them quite like his mother does, but he guesses he can try. 

"Yes. You need to take a shower first. Need any help?" Freddie shakes his head at his father's question and takes off towards the hall bathroom. Louis gets up before he remembers something and yells to his son.

"And I swear to GOD, Freddie, if you leave the seat up again and get water everywhere I will ground you for ten years!" 

He gets a "Yeah!" back and knows he'll be cleaning water up again for the millionth time later in a couple hours. 

But he doesn't mind that much. 

** 

Promise me this:

That you'll stand by me forever  
But if God forbid fate should step in  
And force us into a goodbye  
If you have children someday  
When they point to the pictures  
Please tell them my name  
Tell them how the crowds went wild  
Tell them how I hope they shine.......


End file.
